THIS 1850km road trip covers Queensland's coast from Noosa to Port Douglas, via the dunes of Fraser Island and beaches of the Whitsundays, before heading inland to the Outback.

NoosaBest for: food Kilometres into your trip: 0

Head north from Brisbane and past the bald, rocky hills of the Glass House Mountains National Park to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, in an easy two-hour drive.

They arrive before dawn. A solitary car pulls up, then two, then a dozen. With cloth bags tucked under arms and torches clasped in hands, a troupe of eager gourmands makes its way along the edge of a suburban football ground to an unassuming string of tarpaulin-covered stalls - the Noosa Farmers Market.

Torchlight reveals strawberries neatly piled beside crates of avocados the size of gourds, starfruit, and passionfruits like cricket balls. While stallholders rush to put the finishing touches to their displays, mangoes are squeezed by expert fingers, grapes are popped into mouths, and pineapples are turned upside down to be sniffed to measure their sweetness.

Beyond the fruit, fresh artisan breads, cheeses and concoctions such as lychee balsamic vinegar or golden kiwi sweet chilli sauce are in demand.

By the time the sun is out and the main crowds arrive, the early risers are finished, settling down for a coffee and a free-range egg and bacon roll. "People love their food around here, so most of the very best stuff is gone early," says one customer. "At times it's like the January sales, or the start of a horse race." He grins widely. "We are all very nice to each other, of course. But it's competitive."

The small coastal district of Noosa, with its golden beaches and laid-back hippie roots, may seem an unlikely candidate as Queensland's unofficial culinary capital, but its location between the fresh seafood of the coast and the farm goods from the surrounding hills has seen the town gain a reputation that draws visitors from all over the country.

Across Noosa, cafes and restaurants trumpet their local goods, from Cedar Street haloumi - made by a former jazz musician in nearby Maleny - to fresh Clandestino coffee, roasted on the edge of town. On the Noosa Heads shorefront, the clink and clatter of plates and cutlery can be heard over the crash of the waves and shrieks of gambolling, wet-haired children. Berardo's Bistro on the Beach is full of diners enjoying delicately flavoured Noosa spanner crab and Mooloolaba prawns from waters down the coast.

Local cooking teacher Gail Rast holds regular classes on how to perfect what she calls "the essential Queensland arts" of barbecuing and cooking seafood.

"The diversity of produce you can get in this part of the world is amazing," Rast says, tucking into her cuttlefish salad.

"And Noosa people really care about where their food comes from, which means we have great relationships with the growers and producers, and they in turn have a strong market for their goods and can keep their businesses going."

Where to eat: Berardo's Bistro on the Beach shows off the best of Noosa's culinary tastes, from barramundi and chips to local cuttlefish. See berardos.com.au

Where to stay: Up-market Hastings St is home to the beachfront hotel Netanya Noosa. See netanyanoosa.com.

A more economical option is to stay further inland at Verano Resort, near the Noosa River and Lake Weyba. It offers stylish, open-plan apartments with balconies. See verano-noosaville.com

Fraser IslandBest for: wild nature Kilometres into your trip: 200

Drive inland and then north for just under three hours on the Bruce Highway to River Heads, then catch a ferry to Fraser Island.

Two fishermen stand ankle-deep in the foamy surf, a straight golden line of beach stretching almost to the horizon either side of them. A dingo wanders along nearby. In the distance, the outer fringe of a vast tropical rainforest waves in the breeze.

It seems a perfect scene of tranquillity, but the waters sloshing around these fishermen's bare legs are infested with 2m tiger sharks that have been known to chase fish all the way to the shallows and launch themselves on to the sand.

In the right conditions, the rainforest, with its thick stands of eucalypts, can quickly burst into flames. And, while dingoes are largely harmless, they have been known to attack humans.

This may look like a tropical paradise, but this is Fraser Island - as wild and unpredictable as it is beautiful - and it commands respect.

At more than 130km in length, the island is the world's largest sandbank, and it teems with life. The skies are filled with birds, from the delightfully named spangled drongo to the white-bellied sea eagle.

The waves conceal whales, dolphins and sea turtles, and the western beaches are covered with armies of blue-backed soldier crabs. Emerging occasionally from the brush are wallabies, echidnas, possums and palm-sized sugar gliders.

There are also some creatures of the less cuddly variety.

"We have six of the world's 10 deadliest snakes," local photographer Peter Meyer says cheerfully, with a hint of pride. "Not to mention the spiders - the Fraser Island funnel-web is the deadliest spider in the world. But they're unlikely to hurt you if you don't disturb them, and it's very rare for people to be bitten."

He gives a chuckle. "The thing I'm most afraid of is the ants," he says. "We've got an inch-long bull ant here that will rip your leg off."

Meyer has lived on Fraser Island for 17 years, his skin browned by years spent capturing images of its forests, towering dunes, ice-blue inland lakes and mangroves - yet he claims he is far from knowing all the island's secrets.

"Fraser is one of the few places on Earth where you can walk off the path for one minute and be standing in a spot so remote and secluded that you can be reasonably sure no human has ever set foot there."

He negotiates his SUV through the bush over a winding, deeply rutted track of dried mud, then climbs on foot to his favourite spot on the island - a broad dune of sand punctured with the abstract skeletons of trees, surrounded by rainforest and views out to the Pacific Ocean beyond.

"I've never seen anyone else up here," he says.

"Never even seen any footprints that weren't my own. That gives you a tremendous sense of freedom."

Where to stay and eat: Accommodation at Kingfisher Bay Resort ranges from simply furnished rooms with native-wood balconies and views over the wallum wetlands, to whole designer houses, complete with veranda and barbecue. The stylish Seabelle restaurant has a seasonally changing menu inspired by the indigenous Butchulla tribe, which includes crocodile and emu steaks. See kingfisherbay.com

Whitsunday IslandsBest for: beaches Kilometres into your trip: 1090

From Fraser Island, catch a ferry back to the mainland and make the marathon 11-hour drive up the coast to Airlie Beach, the launching pad for visits to the Whitsunday Islands. Alternatively, return to Brisbane (four hours) and fly to Proserpine's Whitsunday Coast Airport.

The Whitsunday archipelago is made up of 74 islands, and several of them are spread out in the sea below. Pilot David Macfarlane gently drops one wing of his tiny 12-seater seaplane and wheels around the northernmost point of Whitsunday Island.

"Here it comes," he says through the crackle of the on-board speakers.

The island's soft green hills suddenly part and a broad estuary is revealed, an impossibly scenic tidal river with overlapping swirls of sand and sea.

The plane swoops past several times to allow the passengers to take in the view, then slowly descends.

This is Whitehaven, considered one of the greatest beaches in the world.

The secret is in the sand.

It's the brightest white - almost blindingly so on a sunny day like this one - and is 98 per cent silica, which makes it talcum-powder fine and so reflective that, no matter how blisteringly hot the sun, it is always cool to the touch.

There are a few people sitting quietly rubbing their feet in the sand.

"It exfoliates your skin like a pedicure," says one woman.

"The only way to get to the beach is to fly or sail in on a day trip," says Macfarlane from his perch on one of the plane's great floats.

"So there are never very many people here, and occasionally you get the whole beach to yourself." He squints down the beach, admiringly.

"It's so beautiful, sometimes you can't believe it has not been Photoshopped," he says.

"I'll never get tired of that view."

Further info: Air Whitsunday has daily flights departing from the airport near Airlie Beach - the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands - and allows for time spent on Whitehaven Beach. See airwhitsunday.com.au or tourismwhitsundays.com.au

Where to eat: Inspired by traditional sailor's food, the cheerful Fish D'Vine on the main street of Airlie Beach specialises in two key ingredients: seafood and rum. Diners can choose from a display of freshly caught fish and a wall of 280 rums. Mojito cocktails and beer-battered fish and chips are the house specialties. See fishdvine.com.au

Where to stay: Watching the sun set from a hotel balcony is a treat, but at Coral Sea Resort you can have the decadent choice of seeing the spectacle from the comfort of your own hammock or deck spa. Located on the tip of Airlie Beach's western peninsula, the hotel looks out over bobbing white boats and aquamarine bays on two sides, and the nautical theme continues inside, with polished timber and boating prints. See coralsearesort.com

Catch a one-hour ferry from Shute Harbour, near Airlie Beach, to Hamilton Island, then fly to Cairns. From here, Port Douglas is a beautiful one-hour coastal drive to the north.

With a sloshing, spluttering sound, six heads emerge from the water in unison, each adorned with snorkels and masks.

"Did you see it?" asks one. "I'm sure I did. Look again."

Then down they go, to peer at the vast, colourful world of coral and sea life just a few metres below them, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

This is just a tiny section of the mighty Great Barrier Reef, which covers 350,000sq km - an area significantly larger than Britain - along the Queensland coast, supporting thousands of species of fish, sea turtles, sharks and whales, with corals in 400 varieties.

On view today are the staghorn coral - its hard, pointed antlers growing thick and knobbly - and the maze-patterned blobs of brain coral, as well as the purple, fan-shaped "elephant's ears". Then, from the softly grasping, greenish-mauve fingers of a sea anemone, the orange-and-white-striped clownfish made famous by Pixar and Disney's Finding Nemo emerges, and a silent ballet of excited slow-motion pointing begins among the snorkellers.

"They always want to see Nemo," laughs John Scotese, a Chicago-born marine biologist aboard the Wavedancer catamaran floating in the waters nearby.

The boat is anchored at the Low Isles, where a small coral cay juts out above the water with a red-topped lighthouse and a shelly beach where snorkellers stop between sessions.

It is uninhabited today, but in 1928 this small island played host to a group of British scientists as they embarked on a quest to complete the world's first survey of a coral reef. According to Scotese, no one had really understood coral reefs before this time.

"They discovered how these ecosystems function and gave us a lot of important knowledge that we still use today and the Reef is not an easy thing to survey," he says, with an arm gesture that indicates the complex network of reefs stretching from here to the edge of the continental shelf.

"It's an incredibly diverse world. Every day I go down there, I tend to find a new plant or animal I haven't seen before. And if I don't, I feel genuinely surprised."

It's time to leave. As a dinghy rounds up the last of the group, a green sea turtle pops up a few metres from the catamaran's rail. It floats for a moment, its large black eyes seeming to observe proceedings with interest, then disappears just as suddenly.

Further info: Quicksilver's Wavedancer visits the Low Isles daily. Check water clarity forecasts, as visibility here can be poor. See quicksilver-cruises.com

Travel out to a pontoon in the Outer Reef (quicksilver-cruises.com) or visit reef locations on a smaller craft (calypsoreefcruises.com).

Where to eat: A local favourite is the Salsa Bar & Grill, where high-end tropical dishes are the order of the day. See salsaportdouglas.com.au

Where to stay: The Peninsula Boutique Hotel is set just a little way back from the beach, with sea views beyond the trees. Rooms are neat and stylish, with gargantuan tiled spa baths designed for a post-snorkelling soak or you can choose to relax by the lovely shaded courtyard pool. See peninsulahotel.com.au

Mount MulliganBest for: the Outback Kilometres into your trip: 1850

Take a two-hour drive southwest from Port Douglas to the small township of Dimbulah, on the Atherton Tableland, then head north for 48km over a rutted red road to Mount Mulligan.

"Block the lead! The lead!" The call goes up from behind a dusty scrum of jostling bovine bodies, and a black-and-white short-haired collie streaks across the ground to head off the progress of a stray. It's muster day at Mount Mulligan station and half a dozen mounted stockhands are driving a motley herd of cattle down into the pastures.

Helping them are three matching dogs, running a full-speed circular relay of canine discipline, their feet barely touching the ground. The man giving the orders is "the boss", Gordon Pringle, the owner of the vast Mount Mulligan estate, who directs the proceedings.

Some of the bulls are "cleanskins" - wild and wilful unbranded cattle born in the bush - and it's not unknown for them to lower their horns and charge.

The horses are drawn from the ranks of brumbies that roam around the surrounding hills.

These dusty cattle yards are set in 28,300ha of largely untouched bushland, in the shadow of one of Australia's most remarkable natural structures. Mt Mulligan is a huge sandstone escarpment about 10 times the size of Uluru, or Ayers Rock.

To the local Djungan people, this sacred site is known as Ngarrabullgan, the birthplace of the Rainbow Serpent god. Fringed with green, the rock looms over the stockmen's bunkhouse and slowly changes from a fiery orange to a soft mauve as the sunlight begins to fade.

Soon the team arrives, leaving a trail of dust in its wake, and a shoulder of beef is set to roast in a camp oven.

Pringle takes a seat on a broad ironbark log and stretches out after a long day in the saddle.

"It's not an easy life," he admits. "It's life or death every day. But one moment you're galloping through the bush, chasing a wild bull like your ancestors used to, and the next you're sitting down by a billabong, with a kind of peace and quiet you can't imagine. It's just a way of life, I guess."

Further info: Mount Mulligan cattle musters take place from July to September.

Watch from the sidelines, or get stuck in on a quad bike or horseback. Year-round activities include bush walking and fishing, plus horse riding, quad biking and fossicking for gold. See mountmulligan.com

Where to stay and eat: Mount Mulligan campsite - for a truly rugged outback experience, bring a tent or grab a camp bed in the stockmen's bunkhouse by the Hodgkinson River. Luxury safari tents and a camp dinner are sometimes available. See mountmulligan.com

More: See Lonely Planet's Queensland & the Great Barrier Reef and visit australia.com

Prawn and chorizo skewers

Take the flavours of Queensland home with one of Gail Rast's barbie classics. See lifesafeast.com.au for more.

Method: 1. Combine the paprika, garlic, lemon rind, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.2. Cut the chorizo into 16 slices, no thicker than the prawns (1-1.5cm).3. Skewer a prawn around a chorizo slice. Include two of these per skewer. Continue until you have eight skewers.4. Brush the marinade over the prawns and chorizo, and refrigerate for one hour.5. Preheat a barbecue grill to a medium-high heat.6. Barbecue the skewers for two to three minutes each side, or until cooked through.

Makes 8 skewers

Indigenous heritage

Queensland is home to dozens of Aboriginal tribes, each with its own language and age-old customs.

Less than 20 minutes' drive from Port Douglas is Mossman Gorge, home to a newly opened visitors' centre at the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest - thought to be the oldest rainforests in the world. Here, members of the Kuku Yalanji tribe introduce their culture. After an initial smoking ceremony, where bad spirits are waved away with the help of smoke from an open fire, indigenous guides lead the way into their beautiful forests and impart vital bush knowledge learnt from their ancestors. See mossmangorge.com.au

Just 5km up the road at Cooya Beach, the Walker brothers introduce the art of fishing with traditional spears in the shallow waters and thick mangroves behind the beach. Visitors learn to catch mudcrabs, oysters and stingrays, before heading to the Walker's family home and enjoying delicious seafood lunch. Ph (07) 4040 7500.

Experience Aboriginal culture with luxury at the Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa, a series of bayans (huts) in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest. Learn about indigenous art, relax with a spa treatment using native plants and enjoy a meal with herbs from the forest. See daintree-ecolodge.com.au

Three ways to do it: Brisbane

1. Budget See: At the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, you can see some of Australia's most striking art, with forms ranging from sculpture to film. See qagoma.com.auSleep: A short walk from the city centre is the historic B&B Annie's Shandon Inn. See anniesbrisbane.comEat: Govindas does great vegie curries at three city branches. See brisbanegovindas.com.auDrink: Overlooking the Brisbane River, the balcony of the Alto Bar, set in a former power station, is the perfect place to sip chilled wine at sunset. See baralto.com.au

2. Mid-range See: Cuddle a koala at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. You can also feed kangaroos and meet dingoes. See koala.netSleep: In the heart of the bar district, Limes Hotel has modern but cosy interiors, a cool rooftop cinema and its own cocktail bar. See limeshotel.com.auEat: The up-market Spoon Deli Cafe serves delicious lunchtime pasta, salads, soups and huge paninis. See spooneastbrisbane.com.auDrink: Popular Cru Bar + Cellar in the lively James St Market area has an open-plan design and a long list of wines. See crubar.com

3. Luxury See: After climbing up the picturesque Story Bridge, 80m above the Brisbane River, you get to abseil back down. See storybridgeadventureclimb.com.auSleep: Spicers Balfour Hotel has plush furnishings, an organic-food restaurant and nine intimate, stylish rooms. See spicersgroup.com.auEat: Cha Cha Char! has won awards for its steak, with every cut served in every way possible, as well as fish, veal and duck dishes. See chachachar.com.auDrink: For artful cocktails, head to the Emporium Hotel. See emporiumhotel.com.au

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